464 CERVUS. 
rightly indicate the circumstances under which the wound 
of the Megaceros was inflicted, they would be those which 
best accord with the actual evidence of recovery from it. 
The Earl of Enniskillen has transmitted to me specimens 
of carpal and tarsal bones of the Megaceros diseased with 
exostosis; and there is in his Lordship’s collection a lower 
Fig. 190. 
Diseased lower jaw of the Megaceros, from shell-marl, Ireland. 
jaw of the same extinct species, from which a large part of 
the outer wall has exfoliated, probably in consequence of 
a blow received in combat at the rutting-season ; a con- 
siderable amount of new irregular osseous matter has been 
formed to replace the lost portion of bone. Cut 190 
gives a figure of this interesting example of primeval 
disease. 
To my enquiries as to the places whence the numerous 
specimens of the Megaceros which I have examined in 
travelling through both North and South of Ireland, had 
been obtained, the reply was usually from such or such a 
bog; but I met with no person who had seen them in the 
peat itself. In every case where more definite information 
was afforded by an eye-witness of their discovery, it ap- 
peared that the antlers and bones had been dug out of 
